India: Mumbai Pune Expressway Landslide Kills Two, Highway Reopens A Day After Disaster

A horrific tragedy on the Mumbai Pune Expressway has claimed the lives of two people and injured three, reports the Indian Express. According to the report, a landslide occurred on the busy expressway connecting the two cities of Mumbai And Pune following which the expressway had to be closed off for several hours. The landslide occurred around 70 kms from Pune city on Sunday afternoon. Traffic on both the lanes of the Mumbai Pune Expressway had to be halted. This resulted in a long traffic jam on the expressway throwing people’s weekend plans off gear.

Two people were killed in the tragedy when falling boulders hit three vehicles on the road. The landslide occurred near the Adoshi tunnel near the town of Khopoli. A total of five people were injured in the accident, officials from the Khopoli Police Station confirmed.

The incident happened at around 12 noon on the expressway after incessant rains caused boulders and rocks to roll off from the mountains above the expressway. Two cars were directly hit by the boulders and so was a tractor trailer. All three vehicles were trapped under the debris. All the deaths and injuries were reported from the two cars that were hit by the falling rocks. The people who died in the accident have been identified as Dilip Gopal Patel (52) and Shashikant Dhamankar. The injured individuals are Mangal Mane (35), Sushila Dhamankar (60) and Nirmala Patel.

Two people were declared dead after they died on their way to the hospital. Meanwhile, the Maharashtra State Government has assured families of the injured that all their medical expenses would be taken care of by the state. The family members of the victims have been announced a compensation of Rs.4 lakh (USD 6,200) by the government. The injured were transported to the Lokmanya Hospital at Nigdi.

Meanwhile the relatives of the victims are yet to recover from the shock of the tragedy. The Patel family was on their way to Pune to drop their daughter Beena who was about to start her first day of college. It is alleged that rescue workers and trucks laden with equipments took over an hour to reach the spot of the landslide on the Mumbai Pune Expressway because of the traffic jam that it had caused. However people from nearby areas and the local police station managed to remove some of the debris immediately after the accident.

The news of this tragedy on the Mumbai Pune expressway comes just a day after we reported about a building collapse in Delhi which claimed several lives. The expressway has since then been reopened to traffic.

[Image Via India Express]